Fayetteville, Pittsburg Get Personal With Gifts
We kicked off TQL Cares for the Holidays at the end of November. Teams around the company and country have been busy sharing their time, talent and treasure with those in need.
TQL Fayetteville hosted a bake sale Dec. 11 and raised $300 for Together We Rise, an organization providing assistance to children in foster care.
“The TQL Intranet had some suggestions of charities to look into and this was my favorite one, so I did some research on everything that they have done and do and loved it,” said LAE Brooke H. “This is a need that most people don’t think about or even know about so I thought it would be great to get involved in something different.”
Among their projects, Together We Rise provides children going into foster homes with proper luggage to carry their belongings, instead of the plastic garbage bags they usually get.
“I just have a passion for that kind of stuff,” Brooke said. “We didn’t even know when we chose it, but we had a broker here who spent time in foster care and she was really passionate about this, so it worked out well.
“We were able to buy sweet cases for foster children in our area. We have a somewhat small office and it was really awesome how much our team supported us and pitched in to help.”
Office members will personalize the cases for the kids before delivering them at the end of the month.
Team Fayetteville also paired with the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank – a frequent partner – to be a donation hub for the pantry. Four teams from TQL Fayetteville will compete to see who can raise the most food donations through December.
Team Pittsburgh looked forward to its annual collection of money and gifts for the local Toys for Tots effort and started collecting at the end of November.
They had raised about $200 in the early going when a teammate suffered a house fire. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but the broker and his fiancé had no place to stay and they faced some large veterinary bills to treat pets with smoke inhalation.
The team shifted focus and raised an additional $550 for a total gift of $750 to help them through their tough time.
“We kept it mostly on the down low as we did it,” said SOL Aaron M. “But we felt like we had to help one of our own.”
Which isn’t to say TQL Pittsburgh ignored its commitment to the community. On Dec. 14, team members donated toys and visited Ronald McDonald House of Pittsburgh for a night of cookie baking and decorating.
Let us know your story and how you’re helping your communities this holiday season. Send photos and/or videos of your volunteer work to socialmedia@tql.com. We’ll highlight some of them on the Life At TQL social media channels and here on the blog site.
Because TQL Cares.